Question

During a recent winter storm, bales of hay had to be dropped from an airplane to a herd of cattle below. Assuming the airplane flew horizontally at an altitude of 180 m with a constant velocity of 50 m/s and dropped one bale of hay every two seconds. About how far apart from each other will the bales land on the ground?

a) 50 m
b) 100 m
c) 150 m
d) 200 m

Answer 1

Each bale of hay will land approximately 100 meters apart when dropped from a moving airplane every two seconds at a constant horizontal velocity of 50 m/s.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question deals with projectile motion, where an object is dropped from a horizontally moving airplane and we are asked to calculate how far apart the bales of hay will land on the ground. First, we know that horizontal velocity is uniform when air resistance is ignored, so the bales will continue to move horizontally at the plane's speed after they're dropped. Since one bale is dropped every two seconds and the plane's velocity is 50 m/s, each bale will travel 50 m/s * 2 s = 100 m before the next one is dropped. Thus, the bales will land approximately 100 meters apart from each other.